Tue, 10 May 2005

Everybody who seeks to make a profit has a mixture of inputs to
their operation. You need a mix of skills, tools, and materials. The
exact mix chosen depends on the price and value of those things. A
radical change in the price of any one component will make the current
mix double-plus ungood (thank you, Don Lancaster). The proportions of
the mix will change, with more of the cheaper input being used.

In other words, free software means that the efficiency of the IT
industry has greatly increased. IT products have become cheaper.
This will result in MORE total IT spending. More programmers will be
needed in the future, not less. RMS got the economics completely wrong
in his manifesto.
We recently had a discussion about economics that ended up in me
purchasing him a copy of Economics in One
Lesson.